Make VIP foreign trip expenses' information public: CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has suggested that the government should make public as much information as possible on the expenses incurred on VIP visits abroad.

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NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of a Supreme Court order asking for information on judges' travel abroad to be made public, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has suggested that the government should make public as much information as possible on the expenses incurred on VIP visits abroad.

"We have been noticing a lot of public interest in the visit of such high dignitaries as the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister of India. Quite often, one comes across RTI applications seeking similar information about these visits," said Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Satyananda Mishra.

He was hearing the plea of activist Subhash Agrawal who sought details of expenses incurred on the visit of former President Pratibha Patil. "While admitting that the official visits of these dignitaries have a strong security angle to it, in this age of transparency, there is a case for placing as much information about these visits as possible in the public domain," he said.

"We would suggest that the authority responsible in President Secretariat may decide to upload as much information as possible about the official visits, specially the details of the delegation accompanying the President, in the official website for the information of the general public."

He said similarly if possible to compile the total expenditure on the visit, an aggregate figure of such expenditure for each visit and if not possible to compile such details for each visit at least for the entire year should be uploaded.